diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'roff.7')
| -rw-r--r-- | roff.7 | 41 |
1 files changed, 35 insertions, 6 deletions
@@ -86,6 +86,38 @@ Thus, the following request lines are all equivalent: \&.ig end \&. ig end .Ed +.Sh MACRO SYNTAX +Macros can be defined by the +.Sx \&de +request. +When called, they follow the same syntax as requests, except that +macro arguments may optionally be quoted by enclosing them +in double quote characters +.Pq Sq \(dq . +To be recognized as the beginning of a quoted argument, the opening +quote character must be preceded by a space character. +.Pp +A quoted argument may contain whitespace, and pairs of double quote +characters +.Pq Sq Qq +resolve to single double quote characters. +A quoted argument extends to the next double quote character that is not +part of a pair, or to the end of the input line, whichever comes earlier. +Leaving out the terminating double quote character at the end of the line +is discouraged. +For clarity, if more arguments follow on the same input line, +it is recommended to follow the terminating double quote character +by a space character; in case the next character after the terminating +double quote character is anything else, it is regarded as the beginning +of the next, unquoted argument. +.Pp +Both in quoted and unquoted arguments, pairs of backslashes +.Pq Sq \e\e +resolve to single backslashes. +In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included +by preceding them with a backslash +.Pq Sq \e\~ , +but quoting is usually better for clarity. .Sh REQUEST REFERENCE The .Xr mandoc 1 @@ -174,12 +206,9 @@ The macro can be invoked later using the syntax .Pp .D1 Pf . Ar name Op Ar argument Op Ar argument ... .Pp -Arguments are separated by blank characters and can be quoted -using double-quotes -.Pq Sq \(dq -to allow inclusion of blank characters into arguments. -To include the double-quote character into a quoted argument, -escape it from ending the argument by doubling it. +Regarding argument parsing, see +.Sx MACRO SYNTAX +above. .Pp The line invoking the macro will be replaced in the input stream by the |